Grottaglie

Grottaglie is located in the Salento peninsula, dividing the Adriatic sea from Ionian sea. The countryside around the city is scattered with vast and deep ravines in the limestone that underlies the peninsula. The urban core of Grottaglie is surrounded by these ravines.
There is evidence of settlement in the region since the Paleolithic era. The name Grottaglie derives from the Latin Cryptae Aliae, meaning "many ravines". The ancestral part of the town was one of the citadels in the area, referred to in Medieval documents as Casale Cryptalerum, founded by locals sheltering in the caves of the ravines due to coastal Saracen raids.

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